The City That We Love

oil on canvas

2' x 3'

March 2015

I have always admired Van Gogh and other impressionists’ ability to create paintings that take reality and elevate it to a level of fantasy. That said, I have never imitated impressionism before because my normal painting style tends to be very focused in detail. For this painting, I decided to step outside my box and try something more loose and expressive.

This image is based off of a photograph I took in Nanjing, China, where I studied abroad for semester. It was the morning of Christmas Eve, my last day in the city, and the sunrise lit up the smog-filled sky as if to say goodbye. Because the composition of the photograph is a mirror image to that of Van Gogh’s Starry Night, I thought combining these two images would be a perfect way to immortalize this memory. Much like Van Gogh’s paintings are exaggerated version of the real-life scenes they portray, this painting reflects the Nanjing that is already idealized within my mind. Four of the city’s great monuments—Purple Mountain, Xuanwu Lake, Jiming Temple, and the high-rise buildings of Gulou District—are included partly to take the place of the compositional elements of Starry Night, and partly to remind the viewer that this is a painting of a different place entirely.

The title is after Bastille's Pompeii, which was the class song for the students of my study abroad program.